Father Thames

• Photographer
  Julia Fullerton-Batten

The Thames has been a fascination for me ever since I moved to Oxford in the UK from Germany nearly thirty years ago. Oxford lies on the banks of the Thames (called Isis there) and, in West London, where I live now, I am still only a short walk away from the river. It has been fascinating for me to consider the history, of both the Thames and London. That of the Thames is chequered with many interesting individual stories. The stories encompass birth, baptism, death, suicide, messages in a bottle, riverside scavenging youngsters, quaint ancient boats, prison ships (‘hulks’), and include other melodramatic episodes of life and death in and along the Thames.